Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/November 2

November 2

• 2012 – According to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, Syrian Air Force strikes on Harem, Syria, kill 70 people.

• 2012 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis is towed from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to an exhibition hall at Cape Canaveral's main tourist stop to be put on display. The 10-mile (16-km) journey takes 12 hours. It is the final act of the Space Shuttle Program.

• 2005 – An AH-1W SuperCobra 165321 from HMLA-369 shot down near Ramadi, killing the two pilots.

• 2003 – near Fallujah, CH-47D Chinook 91-0230 of Detachment 1/F Company/106th Aviation Brigade shot down with an SA-7 missile; 16 soldiers killed, 26 wounded.

• 1992 – First flight of the Airbus A330

• 1992 – A Grumman EA-6B Prowler (United States Navy) crashes in field near NAS El Centro. The three crewmen ejected at a very low altitude while inverted, and all were killed. Crew included Lt. Charles Robert Gurley (USN), Lt. Peter Limoge (USMC), and Ltjg. Dave Roberts (USN)

• 1988 – LOT Flight 703, an Antonov An-24, crashes on approach to Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, killing one passenger, all others survive.

• 1982 – The last CF-104 course was started by 417 Squadron at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta.

• 1981 – McDonnell-Douglas F-15A-14-MC Eagle. 75-0051, of the 59th TFS, 33d TFW, based at Eglin AFB, crashes near Panama City, Florida after mid-air collision with McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle, 76-0048, during night refueling. Pilot killed. Second F-15 lands okay.

• 1968 – Japan Airlines Flight 2, a Douglas DC-8, ditches in San Francisco Bay as a result of pilot error, all on board survive.

• 1964 – A U. S. Air Force HH-43 F helicopter based at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, conducts the first night rescue by the Air Force’s Air-Sea Rescue Service in Southeast Asia.

• 1956 – After aerial reconnaissance reveals the destruction of the Egyptian Air Force, the British invasion force commander, General Sir Charles Keightley, orders British and French aircraft to begin a wide-ranging interdiction campaign against Egypt’s military bases, infrastructure, and economy.

• 1955 – Air Force Douglas B-26C-45-DT Invader, 44-35737, crashed into houses on Barbara Drive in East Meadow, Long Island, New York. An aerial photograph of the crash scene was awarded the 1956 Pulitzer Prize.

• 1954 – The VTOL Convair XFY transitions from vertical to horizontal flight and back

• 1953 – First prototype Convair YF-102 Delta Dagger, 52-7994, suffers engine failure during test flight, lands wheels up, severely injuring the pilot, airframe written off.

• 1952 – Marine Corps Maj. William Stratton and Master Sgt. Hans Hoagland, in a Douglas F3D Skyknight, down a North Korean Yak-15, marking the first victory in a jet-versus-jet night action.

• 1947 – With Howard Hughes at the controls, the Hughes H-4 Hercules, also known as the “Spruce Goose, ” makes its first flight, traveling at 135 mph (217 km/hr) for about a mile (1.6 km) at an altitude of 70 feet (21 m) over Long Beach Harbor in California with 32 people on board. Both the largest flying boat and the aircraft with the largest wingspan (319 feet 11 inches; 97.54 m) ever built, it never flies again.

• 1943 – 75 Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells escorted by 80 P-38 Lightnings raid Rabaul, where they encounter the newly arrived Japanese carrier aircraft and lose nine B-25 s and 10 P-38 s shot down. They shoot down 20 Japanese planes and sink two merchant ships and a minesweeper.

• 1943 – First flight of the Grumman F7F Tigercat.

• 1942 – A B-17C Flying Fortress breaks apart in the air near Tells Peak, California, while en route to Sacramento for an engine overhaul. Pilot 1st Lieutenant Leo M. H. Walker dies, but the other eight crew members survive.

• 1941 – Wisconsin-native Lieutenant Thomas "Bud" L. Truax is killed, along with his wingman, Lt. Russell E. Speckman, in a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk training accident during poor weather in San Anselmo, California. In the late afternoon, San Anselmo residents are startled when two low-flying Curtiss P-40C Warhawks, 41-13375 and 41-13454, roar up the valley at just above roof level and crash into the east side of Bald Hill just shy of the peak at 1740 hrs. It was almost dark, was misty and they were under a low cloud ceiling. They were critically low on fuel and part of a larger training group that had gotten separated. They were under the wintertime marine layer of low clouds that are common in the Marin County area, searching for nearby Hamilton Field to land.[85][86] Madison Army Air Field, Wisconsin, is named Truax Field in his honor in 1942. A third pilot, Lt. Walter V. "Ramblin" Radovich, flying 41-13392, had left the formation over San Rafael, almost hit the city courthouse on 4th Street, circled the Forbes Hill radio beacon (37°58'44.73"N,122°32'50.78"W), clipped a tree and then turned northeast, towards Hamilton Field. Unsure of what the oncoming terrain might be and critically low on fuel, he decides to climb up though the typically thin marine cloud layer to 2500 ft, trim the airplane for straight and level flight and bail out. According to USAAF accident reports, his left leg was broken when exiting the plane and he parachuted down, landing near Highway 101 in Lucas Valley reportedly near where Fireman's Fund / Marin Commons is currently located (38° 1'10.66"N, 122°32'29.36"W). Ironically, after Lt. Radovich bailed out, the airplane slowly descended back down through the clouds and made a relatively smooth "gear up" landing. All aircraft were of the 57th Pursuit Group (Interceptor), on a cross-country flight from Bradley Field, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, to McChord Field, Washington.

• 1936 – Department of Transport was established and took over control of civil aviation from the Department of National Defense.

• 1931 – The USS Akron, a purpose-built aircraft-carrying airship, is commissioned.

• 1931 – US Marine Corps squadrons VS-15 M and VS-14 M embark on USS Lexington and USS Saratoga, the first time Marine Corps squadrons are assigned to aircraft carriers.

• 1929 - The Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots, also known as 99s, was founded at Curtiss Field, Valley Stream, New York, for the mutual support and advancement of women pilots.

• 1923 – Flying a Curtiss R2 C-1, U. S. Navy Lieutenant H. J. Rowe sets a new world airspeed record of 259.16 mph (417.07 km/hr).

• 1922 – QANTAS begins its first scheduled flights, between Charleville, Queensland and Cloncurry, Queensland.

• 1912 – The first airplane flights in Japan by Imperial Japanese Navy personnel are made by two officers at the naval air station at Oppama using Farman and Curtiss seaplanes.